Place Called Home
by imafoxylilringirl
Summary: Judy wasn't the first bunny Nick helped. What happens when Nick meets an agoraphobia angora bunny? He gets pulled into her stories of travel, woe and occasional debauchery. What is the story behind the skunk butt rug?
1. Prologue: Someday I'll Go

Prologue/Chorus: Someday I'll Go Where There Ain't No Rain or Snow

(five years ago)

"That's the place!" Nick shouted as Finnick passed their destination by almost half a block.

Nick left the van as soon as they were parked and walked to the small, one bedroom two story house. He checked his phone and the picture matched up. It looked… cozy.

 _Better words come to mind, really. Cramped especially._

The grass was a little overgrown, it was amusing to have found any grass, living in this part of the city but some mammals managed. Older, smaller houses littered between the large apartment buildings often did. They had their own little plot of land. They were more land than house more often than not.

There were a yellow rose bush planted on either side of the pathway up to the door. He had been told before that yellow roses mean friendship and welcome in the language of flowers. They were his mother's favorite.

She was the reason he was here. Her birthday was soon and her hobby room was growing bare. He looked through some of her knitting magazines and found some projects highlighted. Fibers she never worked with. He did some searches on Cougarlist and found a basement sale. Skeins of angora wool among the list.

He knocked at the door and there was no answer. He waited then found the doorbell pull. She had to be home she had said she was always home in the e-mail.

"That's rare…" He pulled and could hear the ringing of the melodious bells.

"Ah! One moment!" A panicked voice yelled up from the basement window a couple yards away.

There was a clatter and he realized he had heard thumping noises all along. Would explain why the knocks on the door didn't get reacted to. Even when steps could be heard close to the door it took a good 3 minutes before it opened.

"H-hello!" A flustered voice and long ears with the thickest, longest, softest, white wool he ever saw answered. The smell of anxiety crashed into him like a wave from the ocean. The wooly folded down and his eyes followed to see a squirmy, dust rag of a young doe with upturned pale, yet vivid blue eyes. She wore ear phones around her neck, sound coming out of them and what looked like a predominately white and green sailor school uniform with a red scarf.

 _It's 10 A.M. what was this kit doing home? A bunny home? With this setup I expected goats and old ones at that. Heck older bunnies. An old wi-doe. But a family?_

"Good morning, Honey Bunny. Is your mommy home?" Nick smiled and said in his most sweet voice. He regretted it as soon as he heard the snort. She was laughing the hearty laugh of a grown doe. He felt like a fool. What could he say? Bunnies threw him off. He wondered if this was how Finnick felt when mammals thought he was a child when he wanted to be seen as an adult. Or more accurately if they found out he was… at least she laughed instead of dick punched him.

"No, thank the rutting Moon."

Small paws smacked went up and her own mouth shut. Most mammals didn't expect words like that from a bunny. Her ears blushed brighter.

"I'm at the very least 10 years younger than you think," she said smoothing her hands over her pleated skirt. She had forgotten that he was going to be there when she had gotten dressed this morning. She was binge watching the one of her favorite childhood animations and wanted to cosplay today. Who was she kidding? She would have cosplayed even knowing someone was coming. Costumes made her feel secure and like she could be someone else… anyone else.

"I'm Rin. You wanted some of my homespun, right? C-come in." If she hadn't laughed tears of anxiety would have more than likely overwhelmed her. Even now they stung her and threatened to spill. She wasn't the best with meeting new mammals. She was already starting to feel the squeeze of panic in her heart. She saw his ears move behind his head. She knew she did something wrong, she always doing something wrong. Was it when she laughed? Of course it could have been her slip of the tongue.

 _It had to be a bunny. And of course she's scared of the big bad fox. I could drown in the smell of her anxiety. Why is she asking me in if she's going to be that scared?_ He looked down as her small paw reached out for his larger one and he was shocked when she actually pulled him into the messy living room.

Balls of yarn. Yards of fabric, piles of books and comic books, sketches. And in the middle of it all was a path. A path leading to the kitchen door.

"Sorry about the mess… " Rin said the inside of her ears feeling like they were on fire. She could barely hear the music coming from her headphones with the pulsing circulating through them. She always loved listening to music. Other than the two people in her life it was her only saving grace when she had to interact with strangers. Or go outside. "I was looking for a book and my current project drawers kinda exploded… heh…heh…."

"Did you ever find the book?" Nick said with a grin of relief, coming to understand he wasn't the one she had the problem with per se. It was something fast to pick up on. At least to him. He spent most of his days mammal watching.

"Eeheheh…" Ears shot up and back down and a nervous laugh spilled out of her as they walked down the stairs to the basement but she felt loads better with him teasing her. She realized she was still holding his paw and let go. "I forgot which book I was looking for, grabbed a different one that I was looking for last week and decided I wanted again. It's probably back under everything else that I pulled out of the drawers."

There were outfits in many different sizes that hung from the pipes that connected water to the tiny house. There were classic music instruments that looked like they were pulled straight from antiquity. There was a weaving loom, a spinning wheel and several drawers and tote bins piled to as high as logic and gravity would sustain… minus the logic. The spinning wheel and the bins were packed tightly together and the weaving loom had just barely enough room around it for it to exist in the small room let alone to have a stool set in front of it. Being a small bun had it's advantages it looked like. It was clearly the thumping he heard before. Underneath it was a laptop that had the frozen image of a young lioness in an identical school uniform. On the wall, behind the harps, other stringed instruments and photos were rugs of different textures.

"What are you selling?" He was too fascinated by all the objects he didn't notice her stepping off into an adjacent room that held the house heater or the even smaller if possible room the size of a walk in closet. In the center of the room was a dress form an a silky, shimmery, and beaded white wedding dress that was as stunning as all wedding dresses. Beyond that hanging on the wall was shelf with wooden bobbins and the beginnings of a lacy veil. He was speechless. /HE/ was speechless… "Wow, Snowball. What is it exactly you do?"

"I much preferred the other nickname, Stranger." Her upturned eyes looked sideways and a soft smile played at her short muzzle. "I do what I can. Mostly I create things, at least I try. I call myself a textile artist."

"I'd say you succeed, Honey Bunny." Nick smiled. He could feel her heat rise in a room this small. He wondered if it was from his words or her being brave enough to request it. Then it could have been she dragged a strange fox into her home without even knowing his name. He watched the long wool on her tail bob happily. "Nick Wilde. What all are you selling?"

"You asked that already," Rin smiled and reached his pads up to touch the wedding dress. She had a heightened sense of weight of things and what they felt like against her fur, her nose and the inside of her ears but she liked seeing his reaction to actually touch it with his pads. It was a completely different sense compared to her sense of touch. She loved differences of all animals. She liked the reaction he had. "Anything down here except for this is basically for sale. Are you interested in more than the yarn?"

"I might be."

Rin opened up a gray bin an there was vividly dyed balls of yarn. Nick searched for what he wanted and asked questions about what he needed for his mother's project.

"I'm guessing you aren't selling that beast of a weaving loom or the spinning wheel either."

"Oh… yeah… if there are any takers. You're the only person to have come though." She didn't sound or look too happy. She wasn't but she would give anything to reach her goal. She looked up at the dress. "Everything must go. There simply isn't enough room. Starting a family takes money. Need a bigger house. Need less stuff. Need a real job."

"Are you looking forward to the wedding?"

"Oh yes! It's been a long time coming."

"I'm sure you'll look beautiful in your dress on the day."

Rin sighed.

"I still haven't even decided what I'm making for myself yet."

"That dress isn't yours?" Nick's eyes flicked to the dress.

A hearty laugh rang in his ears again.

"Nope, my twin brother Sugar is getting married to Kit. I introduced them a few years back."

Nick put the balls of yarn into hatbox that was offered to him and they walked through the room with the heater back to the craft room.

"So what's the story with this?" Nick gestured to the unorthodox collection. "There's got to be a story."

"Ho, boy. You just opened yourself up for a WORLD of hurt." Rin climbed up to the top of the stack of totes and started lowering them to him. "For you see, I am a spinner of yarns a weaver of tales. Do you really want to know the story?"

Nick shrugged and smiled. "I have the time. I have to look through all this stuff, after all."

"You're really interested in my junk?!" Rin threw her arms around his waist and gave him the biggest bear hug a bunny could manage.

"If you don't kill me, Doll!" Nick patted the fluff between her ears. "Now, that story."

"Have you ever had a dream? Something that was ripped from you? A dream that you gave away after other people tried to rip to shreds?"


	2. Chapter 1: I'm Just A Rolling Stone

Ultimately like this style better if people would like more of a flashback style i will make an official Place Called Home Alt. where it's more as it happens in real time but for now Lilrin is telling her story and interacting with Nick.

Thank you for your reviews, especially when the this chapter came out. i hadn't realized that i didn't upload it correctly, been really busy and proof that after 12+ years on this site i don't know how to do much more than read.

Ch.1 Anyone Who Looks At Me Knows That I Am Just A Rolling Stone

"That's a way to draw someone into a story, Doll," Nick said, rolling his shoulders and casting a sidelong glance at her as he dug through her fabric, outfits and toys.

"One tries one's best," Rin, reached for a pair of fingerless gloves to hold back her long wool as she picked up her mandolin and playing a melodic song.

"That was my whole life. My Ma was probably never meant to be a mother. No offense but even a fox… ANY mammal has to understand enough about bunny culture to understand the implications of that statement."

He could tell as soon as she said "No offense" she was getting anxious. It was the phrase that raised the fur on anyone. It just could be a problematic phrase or the mammal saying it could be problematic. "Yeah. I get it."

"Something inside her knew it as well, I guess. Lucky she had such small litters. Sugar and I were her first. She had come to the decision that the first one born would be adopted out. Lucky me, I was the second one to be born. I honestly don't know when she decided to keep me. I am pretty sure the reason was she had already given up something that was hers."

Nick stared at her. Not at one point had the music stopped. How could someone grow up like that? If he hadn't had his mother's support and love… what would have become of him?

"I mean I know she had to love me in her own way, but I was always treated so different from my youngest siblings. There were always excuses. Ma always said that since the day I opened my cold eyes that I was glaring at her. Judging her. I was a frigid kit. I would grow up to be cold as I looked, with my pure white wool the color of the coldest snow and my Arctic blue eyes. A plain looking doe with heighty eyes would be lucky if any buck ever wanted to be with me. Only family would ever care for me."

"What the rut," Nick said. He didn't know how anyone could grow up like that. Looking at her he wondered how much of that she believed. She was far from cold. He wouldn't exactly call her plain looking. "So… about that dream?"

" I grew up in Podunk and bunny conservative. Ya'know: Rabbits are everyone's victims: Predators are out to get you, it's natural, larger Prey will trample you, smaller Prey will set you up to be the target. The meek will inherit the Earth, be fruitful, etc., etc, etc. I hated it. I always wanted to be a lot of things when I was a kid. Most of them impossible, like being a superhero like in the comic books. But, my ideal life was that of an adventurer. "

"Dreaming of escape must have been common for you," Nick sighed. It was understandable. He wanted to know how she got from Point A to Point Zootopia.

"Actually," Rin shrugged, "you'd be surprised how little I associated my dream with my home life. I mean, I guess it has some… but I just never do. I grew up with my nose in books. I was a big nerd, still am. I love science and history and the place where they both intersect. I wanted to study Archeology and Anthropology. I was the 'black sheep' of the family. I tried to do what I could to make Ma happy but usually I just ended up always being closed in my room with my music, books, comics, T.V and crafting.

"I lived that way until I was 18. I graduated high school. A week after graduation Sugar contacted us. We met a week after that." Rin lit up as she talked about her twin brother.

"Yeah? What was that like?"

"You've heard of those stories when twins reunite, right? It was just like that. We found we had the same interests in music, similar view of the world. He calls me Rinpunzel," Rin beamed. "I have 8 siblings. He's the only one I ever felt was family all my life. He'd come to visit us periodically so I stayed for another year.

"I spent the year figuring out what I was going to do. I wasn't bad at school, I got good grades because I liked it. It had been an escape. That said, I knew I couldn't spend years in school like that again. Learn the things I wanted to learn paws on. I wanted to experience the world. If my younger siblings wanted to go to school there would be some more money for them to go where they want or travel. I worked hard making crafts, saving up from my wool I sold.

"One night, I went to a concert of one of my favorite bands… Lynx'n Park. When I got home, Ma was livid. Everyone had known for weeks that I was going to the concert. But she was angry and abusive as ever. I decided I had to leave that night. If I didn't I would forgive her and I'd stay… like I always did. I knew if I didn't leave then I never would."


End file.
